Cloud Engines by Swiss Subnet
Cloud Engines are private computers that run on several independent machines at once. No single operator can change your data or fake a result, and every answer carries a signature anyone can check.
What a Cloud Engine is
A Cloud Engine is a private, replicated computer. It runs on at least four machines, each operated by a different, independent company. Every machine holds the complete application and its data, and does all the work. A result only counts once enough machines have computed the same outcome. Then they sign it together.
That changes who you have to trust. On ordinary infrastructure, whoever controls the management console can read, change or roll back your data. On a Cloud Engine, no single company can do that alone: not an operator, not Swiss Subnet, not your own IT team.
Single-tenant. You get the engine’s full capacity and decide who may access it. No per-message billing.
Code and data live together in each application, replicated on every machine. Nothing extra to set up or maintain.
Start with four machines. Add machines or move to stronger hardware without rewriting your software.
We build, monitor and support the engine, and stay your single point of contact.
Your existing cloud
Cloud Engine
What you can build
When someone challenges a record today, the answer is often “trust our IT department.” A Cloud Engine makes it independently checkable. The three patterns below show up across registries, trading platforms, credentials and audit trails — far more than any one page can list.
Banks, insurers, inspectors or agencies working from one record, while none of them trusts the others to keep it.
Why a Cloud EngineEvery party sees the same record. No party, not even the one hosting it, can quietly rewrite it.
Fits reconciliation and position registers, consortium and supply-chain records, shared trade documents.
Certificates, permits, credentials and audit trails only matter if outsiders believe them.
Why a Cloud EngineEvery response is signed by the engine. A buyer abroad, an auditor or a court can check it against one public key, without having to ask you.
Fits certificate and accreditation registers, permits, digital evidence and chain of custody, signing services.
Public bodies and regulated firms that must keep data in one jurisdiction, and confidential even from the people running the servers.
Why a Cloud EngineYou choose where the machines stand and who operates them. On supported hardware, memory stays encrypted while the application runs.
Fits national registries and e-government services, KYC and client data, entitlements that run for decades, like pensions.
One example
FinkaMetals is building the institutional platform for metals concentrates: tendering, assay verification and settlement in one workflow, with every trade action secured by a purpose-built blockchain layer. Mines list lots, traders and refineries bid, and no one can quietly alter a bid or an assay. The platform launches in late 2026.
Cloud Engines also sit behind national government services for the Pakistan Digital Authority and a cross-border credential service from UNDP and the National Bank of Cambodia — among other registries, credentialing systems and shared workflows beyond what fits on one page.
How Cloud Engines work
What happens between your application sending a request and getting an answer it can prove.
Your application sends a request to the engine.
Every machine runs the same code on the same data, on its own.
The result counts only once a qualified majority of machines computed the same outcome.
Those machines produce one joint signature over the result.
Anyone can check the response against the engine’s public key.
Every machine holds a full copy of the application and its data, and does all the work. There’s no primary server and nothing to fail over.
Machines can fail or be attacked without the engine losing correctness or availability, up to a defined limit. A machine that disagrees is outvoted, then restores the correct state from its peers.
On supported hardware, memory stays encrypted while the application runs, so the people operating a machine can’t read your data. Every engine live today runs on supported hardware.
Every response carries a joint signature. You, your auditor or a counterparty can check it against a single public key, without having to trust us.
An engine of 3f + 1 machines keeps working correctly with up to f machines failed or compromised, whether by accident, an attack or an insider. Engines start at four, and machines, even whole operators, can be replaced while the engine runs.
The guarantee covers machines and operators. It doesn’t make application code correct by itself, which is why we review architectures with you.
| Machines | Composition | Tolerates |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 machine | |
| 7 | 2 machines | |
| 13 | 4 machines |
Working correctlyCan fail or be compromised
Memory encryption keeps an operator from reading your data. It doesn’t stop that one company from changing it, rolling it back or switching it off. A Cloud Engine takes the single company out of the picture.
Protects against the operator’s eyes.
Protects against the operator’s hands.
Cloud Engines do both.
Cloud Engines are built for trust-critical workloads. Here’s where they fit, and where they don’t.
Reads are fast. Writes take about two seconds, the time the machines need to agree. Right for registries, workflows, audit trails, signing and portals. Wrong for anything that needs sub-second responses.
Applications are built for the engine, in languages like Rust, JavaScript or Python. Existing software is rebuilt, not lifted and shifted.
Media streaming, bulk storage and heavy analytics belong on traditional cloud, next to the engine.
One engine has finite write capacity. Larger systems are split across several applications, and we design that with you.
From Swiss Subnet to Cloud Engines
Swiss Subnet started as one shared Swiss computer. Today it’s a product you can run wherever your data has to stay.
Launched at World Computer Day in Davos during WEF week: one shared computer, run by 13 independent Swiss operators. Our team had run this infrastructure for years, and was the first to launch a private, rentable engine on it.
What we learned became a product: private, single-tenant engines that start at four machines and are fully managed by us. Our Swiss engine is live.
We bring the engineering, the operating standards and the tooling. You decide where the machines stand: Switzerland, the EU, MERCOSUR, one country or several.
Live today. Independent Swiss operators, Swiss contracts, Swiss law.
Machines inside one country, in local data centres or your own. Data stays within the border and under local law.
One engine across several countries for partners who need a common record, such as a group operating under GDPR or partners across MERCOSUR. No single country or company controls it.
Live todayDeployment model, scoped with you
Which law applies depends on where the machines run and on the contracts we set up with each operator. Our Swiss engine runs under Swiss law, with the courts of Zug as place of jurisdiction. An engine in another country runs under that country’s law.
Every Cloud Engine is isolated by default. Connecting engines, between departments, partners or countries, is designed into the technology and in development now. If your use case needs it, we’ll plan for it with you.
We review your workload and where it must run, tell you plainly whether a Cloud Engine fits, and support a first pilot.
We source the right hardware and vetted operators, at your site or in data centres.
We install and connect everything into a running engine, with monitoring from day one.
We watch every machine around the clock and handle updates, repairs and incidents. Every change is approved and logged.
Contact
Tell us what you want to build, what needs to be protected and where it needs to run. We’ll help you assess whether a Cloud Engine is the right fit.
Three questions that usually decide it